By Tanaka Raiko, Tuesday July 16, 2019
Is your group dying...a checklist.
Group Population Questions:
A. How many people participate with your group? (write down the number)
B. How many people participated with your group 5 years ago?
C. How many people have left your group in the past 5 years?
D. How many people (new, or existing SCAdians) have come into your group in the past 3 years?
E. How many people are paid members?
F. How many live in your zip codes but don’t participate with your group? (i.e. in households, etc.)
G. What is the age range of people participating with your group.
H. How long have the participating people of your group been in the SCA?
Group Activity Questions:
A.Does your group have a weekly practices or get-togethers?
B. How many?
C. Are the group practices and activities varied?
D. Is that more, less, or the same from 5 years ago?
Group Officer questions:
A.Does your group have the required number of officers for your size class (Canton, shire, Barony/Province etc)?
B.Does your group hold elections?
C. Does your group have by-laws? If so, when was the last time they were updated? Have you asked to have them reviewed by your regional seneschal?
D. Does your group have more than the required number of officers?
E. Are your officers the same from 3 years ago?, 5 years ago? Is there complete turnover or do officers just shuffle positions?
F. Does your group have deputies for the various officers?
G. How many officers are holding multiple officers?
H. What is the average age of your officer cadre (deputies included)?
Group administration questions:
A. Do you regularly hold business meetings?
B. Are the business meetings held in a public location (such as a library, etc) or are they held in private homes?
C. are they open to all residents of the group?
D. Is there a centralized location for meetings or a schedule of where they are?
E. Does your group run recurring events? (are they listed on kingdom calendar)
F. Does your group run regular practices? If yes how many? If yes, are they advertised?
G. Does your group have Social media outlets? If yes, list which ones
H. Does your group have a social media officer?
I. If no, who handles the groups Social Media Array?
J. Do your officers regularly file their quarterly reports?
Group demographics questions:
A. How many people regularly play with your group?
B. What is the age breakdown of your group?
C. Do you have the age breakdown from 5 years ago?
D. Does your group have youth activities?
E. How many members of your group have had background checks completed so that they can participate in minor activities?
SCA Event Load Questions:
A. How many Listed events does your group throw a year that aren’t business meetings?
B. How many of them are Royal Progress?
C. How many of them are weekday events?
D. Do your events pay for themselves?
Group Identity questions:
A. Do people out of your area know where your group is?
(if you ask the question, I’m from blahblahblah do they know where it is?)
B. Do people tie the group to an individual or individuals (You’re from X isn’t Duchess Y from there).
C. Does your group have peers in it’s population?
D. If yes, how many different orders are represented?
E. Are those peers active with the group?
F. At large events, does your group have a unified camp named for the group?
New Member Questions:
A.Does your group promote allowing newer members run events/activities?
B.Is there a process for promoting new members to be able to express their ideas and to participate in running the group or group’s activities?
C.Is your group open minded to change and doing things differently than they have been done in years past?
D. Is your group willing to ask for help when issues arise, or do you try to handle it in-house first?
